I'VE ALWAYS NEEDED A GOOD ENDORSEMENT AGENT.
WHAT ARE THE CHANCES OF ONE READING THIS AD?
LET'S SEE?

Rob, I don't think I'm what you are looking for because I'm not sure exactly what you mean by "endorsement agent".

By trade, I am a published songwriter and poet. This pays royalties. I've also been paid per job working as a professional songwriter. What this means is sometimes when a really good singer/band is discovered and signed, and they write their own songs, sometimes their songs need just a little tweaking. The record companies will have them work with "professional songwriters" to just work out the kinks without changing the originality or creativity of the bands' music.

The other work I have done is band relations. Kind of like personal assistant work, but different. I have traveled with a few bands, and I was the person who took care of the bands' needs and wants. For instance, I made sure they had everything they wanted in their hotel rooms, their bus, etc. I took care of their special requests. I made sure they got to sit where they wanted to in restaurants. I knew a lead guitarist who hated the color yellow, and it was my job to make sure there was NO yellow anywhere . . . in his hotel room, his dressing room, his bus, his clothing. A fan once brought him a yellow guitar to autograph, and he got so mad he threw a fit and went to the bus and refused to come back out (lol).

I am, however, very outgoing, attractive, and skilled at talking to a lot of different people and getting what I want from them (when I'm working for someone and doing my job) if what you are looking for is just someone to represent you in getting you autograph signings and appearance bookings. That, I could do all day long. (lol)

So anyway, that's what I do. I may know someone here in Nashville if you explain to me more what you are looking for, but I probably wouldn't know anyone in California.

halochild

The more I think about this, the more I . . . . well, think about it. I can't help myself, I'm a talker.

Whoever you choose to do this job for you is going to have to have some certain skills that any good salesperson would have. Such as people skills, the ability to talk with people. Good writing ability. But I think the most important thing I think is PRODUCT KNOWLEDGE. You must know your product if you are going to sell it. YOU being the product.

Before I could or would even begin to talk to any of my contacts about booking you I would need to know such thing as:

How are you compensated for your work? Is your travel and accomodations included? Do you charge a flat fee? How long will you stay? If your time is up and there are still 10 to 12 fans still waiting to meet you, how do you handle that? Do you charge per autograph? Will you take pictures with the fans? What will you need for set up? etc.

You don't EVER want to say, "I don't know".

Anyway, just thinking . . .

halochild

Hey rvd , I think Halochild would make an awesome endorsement agent for you .
I'm very serious .
If you are looking for an awesome endorsement agent . Then you don't have to look no further .
Because , Halochild would be the perfect endorsement agent for you .
Halochild isn't like big vision entertainment what screwed you out of money .
Halochild would be the awesome endorsement agent for you .

Awwwe, Sharker, that is so sweet of you. And thank you for endorsing ME. But its been a very long time since I did work like that and I think Halo might be retired.

I think I was just dreaming outloud. I could help him find someone here in Nashville tho. I have lots of contacts.

To be successful at selling anything you really have to love and believe in your product, and I sincerely hope that whoever Rob chooses sincerely loves and believes in him, because I do.

It really would be a sweet job.

Thanks again, man!

halochild

Hi Rob. I just saw a TV ad with Joe Namath endorsing Sketchers Shape-ups walking shoes. And I got to thinking. When you say "endorsement agent", is this more what you are taking about. You doing endorsements for products? Like John Cena with the 5-blade razors, Hulk Hogan endorsing Rent-A-Center, and Kiss with Cherry Dr. Pepper?

Is this what you are talking about? I can think of a ton of things you could endorse!

Endorsement agents are specialists.
They are skilled in the trade of connecting product companies with high profile celebs for
mutual benefit.
Over the years, I've had some approach me but they were bull shit and
that's why it'd be great to find a good one.

RVD

Hey rvd , I am not trying to sound rude . And I hope that you do not find this rude .

But I really do think that halochild would be the perfect Endorsement agent for you .

And just giving her the chance and oppurtunity to show you what she can do would mean
alot to her . And she is not no way like the other Endorsement agents what were bullshit
or anything like that .
But just think about it , if your looking for the perfect Endorsement agent.
She is the perfect one for you .

And if your looking for that Endorsement agent,you need an Endorsement agent
what has alot of respect for you and your wrestling . And also an endorsement agent
what knows that you have worked hard to get to where you are at in life .
And not nothing like Big Vision what don't have respect for you and your wrestling .
And All big vision vision cares about is ripping you off .
And plus if you go on the big vision site you can see your dvd on there what
they are still selling on there . And so they can screw you over again and again .

And You need someone like halochild to be the perfect endorsement agent for you .
Because halochild has alot of respect for you and your wrestling .
And halochild also knows that you have worked hard to get to where you are at in life .

Hi RVD! You're absolutely right. You do need someone who has the skills and experience required for THIS particular job. Although I have great skills and experience, and I am GOOD at what I do, and at getting people connected and getting things done, I certainly am not trained for THIS particular job and what you are looking for. I have no doubt I could do the job, but I have no experience for this and that's what you need.

I sincerely hope you do find someone who has your best interests at heart and will take care of you the way you deserve to be taken care of, tho. In my humble opinion, you need an individual and not a large company. With large companies you tend to just become a money-maker and I'd rather see you hook up with someone who loves and believes in Rob Van Dam and wants to see you succeed.

Here's wishing you all the best in finding what you are looking for! I know you will find that person.

(And thanks again, Sharker, I don't know what to say. You really make me feel special.)

halochild

The band manager used to take care of all of the booking and promos when I was with them. He talked, I paid attention.

What product companies want is very simple. They want to sell their product and make money. They want someone who can represent their product in a way that will make people remember it, and want to go buy it, with urgency. To actually feel like they need this product. They want people to think "oh,man, I gotta have that".

What YOU want, I'm guessing here, is to become more famous, make people remember you, and bring more people to Rob Van Dam and TNA Wrestling. AND MAKE MONEY.

So you just need to find that certain product that will do this, as you said, for "mutual benefit".

There are some celebrities who are SO famous that they could endorse anything. Like Hulk Hogan, Kiss, Peyton Manning. I mean, damn. You can watch a football game and see 6 different Peyton Manning commercials (lol).

Troy Polamalu's ad exec was ingenious hooking him up with Head and Shoulders Shampoo. (I love Troy, btw. Got his jersey and everything.) But they played on Troy's long beautiful locks, which the ladies love, to get him the plug. And it worked. He made me remember the product. He became more famous, and he made me want to watch the Pittsburgh Steelers. And I do. I'm "supposed" to be a Titans fan, and on Sundays I'm wearing my Polamalu jersey and watching the Steelers. (Troy will take your ass DOWN!)

I think you should go for a product that is very manly for the guys, but also use your good looks and sexiness to get the ladies interested. Maybe something for the body. Something to make the ladies look at their man and go "baby, we need to get you some of that".

Sometimes I can be at a convenience store, for instance, and I might say something like, "well, I gotta hurry and get home so I can watch wrestling, don't want to miss Rob Van Dam". And the clerk might say something like "I don't know him." You want to change that to "oh, I know him, he's that wrestler on the do dah do dah commercial". heehee And you can do that.

Just me thinking outloud again, Rob.

Okay, here we go.

(Sorry, Rob, I've got way too much time on my hands. And I don't sleep.)

You could do an ad for antiperspirant. The ad would start off with you in action in the ring with your five-star frog splash, the rolling thunder, and you on the ring post holding up your championship belt. And while this is going on, you would be talking in the background about since you are The TNA CHAMP, you get really hot while you are in action, and you need something that is going to keep you dry. And that's why you depend on blah blah blah to do the job.

And at the end of the ad, you would be back stage at the end of the match, with your arms up in the air, doing your famous thumbs up ROB VAN DAM signature move, showing you are still dry, and there would be a babe on each side of you looking you over with a sexy smirk on their faces nodding their heads.

This would show YOU and the product off. And it fits with you raising your arms anyway.

So what do you think, Rob? Anyone like it and think it would work?

And btw, if you use my idea, I want front row ring side seats, back stage passes, hotel accommodations for the night, and airplane tickets. heehee haha!!! JUST KIDDING!

But if you WANT to slide them to me, . . . .

You know I love ya, Rob! I'd do anything for ya.

Hey RVD , I was just thinking of something .
Have you ever asked Paul Heyman about being an endorsement agent for you ?
I'm pretty sure he probably wouldn't mind being one for you if you asked him about it .
Because seeing the way he ran ECW and was creative and got the ECW
wrestling promotion out to
hundred and thousands of fans . He was a genius .


But if you are ever looking for someone to market a product for you ,
I wouldn't mind helping you out by
advertising it on my myspace profile . Because I get 1000's of profile views in a day on it .
And also when I write blogs on my myspace . I get 100's of blog views .

Nihao RVD-san,

Okay. Uhm. So in order to represent your best interests, an endorsement agent would need to be aware of the following things: which products/companies/events you are most interested in being associated with, which ones to avoid, a rough estimate of the average amount of time that you'd be able to spare from your busy schedule for endorsement activities and the bare minimum endorsement fee that you'd consider acceptable. The idea being for the agent to start with higher numbers and not go below this point. And that minimum fee might adjust on a case by case basis, depending upon the amount of influence/wealth that the endorsement-seeking company already has, correct? Hrm.

Judging from your blogs and photo album, it would kinda surprise me if McDonalds was not somewhere on the acceptable companies list. Seems like no matter where in the world you've been, you've found time to eat at their establishments. Also the Coke company... Or do you just enjoy taking pictures of their signs in foreign languages?

After reading your most recent blog... I recall you mentioning the unfortunate fiasco with Big Vision before. It is a shame. However it doesn't necessarily have to prevent you from releasing another DVD, if you're inclined to. There must be other companies with the ability to create and mail out working DVDs. As long as they're able to get it made and put it up on half.com, amazon.com or with the other items being sold and/or auctioned off on this site, they shouldn't have to market it too much - because word of mouth is a powerful thing. The main thing would be to find a company that allows the gross sales to go direct to you and then bills you separately for their services. Maybe even the good folks at Unkind Studios would be up to this task? Or maybe they'd know of someone else who could better handle the volume of orders that are likely to be placed.

In the meantime, please seriously consider expanding the potential of this website. Take a cue from the music industry. They have realized that DVDs and CDs are great but the internet just plain reaches more devices. Right now if I go to the website of nearly any band, I can either order an entire music CD from them or pay about one dollar to instantly download a single song. Most songs seem to be between 3-5 minutes and maybe a dollar doesn't seem like much but it adds up for them because they end up finding thousands of people who are willing to pay that price. RVD-san, your RVDTV should be paying for this site already - right? Keep the viewing free if you want but charge a few dollars to download a single episode. There are apparently more than six thousand members of this forum now and not everyone will be interested but even if only half take up the offer... That's going to be over three thousand! And even if only half of those decide that they want to collect/download the entire series... That could still be a potentially significant income for you.

There's a way to make a program, after it's downloaded, secure. So that it can't just be copied or burned to another device. I'm not a computer programmer so I don't know exactly how it's done but I know that it's possible. Maybe Eric-san the webmaster knows? Or maybe he'd at least know of someone to ask about this. This way, as a marketer, you'd create more demand for the downloads.

You also mentioned having trouble getting sponsers for this site. While I kind of understand where their caution comes from - being as this site isn't the most active place yet, among other things - this also strikes me as a bit ridiculous. Unfortunately the first five or so companies that I've thought of are all non-profits... Maybe a banner exchange would be a step in the right direction though? I'm not sure how that would be arranged but if you could get PBS or the ACLU or even the AMA to do a banner exchange with this site... Perhaps that would make future sponsers more comfortable with aligning themselves here.

... My humble opinion, that's all. This has just weighed on my mind for a while now and so I had to speak up. Seriously doubt that I am even remotely qualified, in the professional sense, to be an endorsement agent. Wish that I was, though. I do enjoy and appreciate this site very much. There is still a lot of potential here, I hope that it can be fulfilled. But it's your site, RVD-san and so a large part of it's future is basically - and rightfully - up to you.

Travel safe and please keep taking care.

Hmmm...

I think Rob is wanting somebody who can Endorse shit like ONLY he can...



By the way? What was this ALL about? Was this your show of support for Michael Phelps marijuna incident? And is that the REAL EC-DUB title you are holding?

I definitely agree with you mrtapass about RVD wanting somebody
who can Endorse shit like ONLY RVD can .

Andd I was thinking that maybe RVD would want someone such as Paul Heyman
to be an endorsement agent for him . But I don't know if RVD ever thought about that .

But I do wish RVD the best of luck with finding an awesome endorsement agent .